Chapter 14: Responsive Report Card Formats

Chapter 14 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal looked at the differences between teachers’ and parents’ views on report cards. Parents focus on how their child is doing in comparison to the other students in the class, where a good teacher is concentrated on what the student is doing to accomplish the standards. The approach that the chapter listed that I found most helpful was called the dual approach. This involved grading both the student’s growth and achievement in relation to the expected standards. The growth element will indicate how much the student has progressed in the course of the year. I really liked the idea of presenting the grade in a format like “A3” or “B2.” I think this reaches a good balance between what the teacher thinks is important and the satisfaction of the parent worrying about his or her student’s abilities and performance.